8. Daniel Bryan, WrestleMania 30 With A Broken Neck
Daniel Bryan followed up on his SummerSlam victory over Cena by becoming embroiled in the long Authority saga. The narrative, part storyline and part shoot, ended up elevating Bryan to new levels of popularity. That rise culminated in Bryan's crowning glory at WrestleMania 30, where he bested Triple H in a superb one-on-one match, before later that night winning the WWE Title over Batista and Randy Orton. What we didn't know at the time was that Bryan was actually suffering from a neck injury. He was experiencing pain and discomfort in those matches, related to nerve issues with his neck and right side. Bryan and WWE had actually known about the issues for some time, they knew that surgery was inevitable. It was all about trying to put it off for as long as possible, in the hope that Bryan could work around it. Nobody wanted to lose the wrestler just as he was achieving new levels of superstardom. It was remarkable that he was able to compete as strongly as he did at Mania, at one point taking a simultaneous RKO and Batista Bomb through the announce table. That's the exact problem when it comes to Bryan, he puts his body through too much punishment. His current injured state is all down to years of pushing the physicality of his style too much.
